Child Item

files to sync first?

Hi,

I don't mind dropbox taking a long time in the morning syncing all my files, but there are a couple files of less than a MB each that I'd like it to sync first. They are in the Apps folder. Is there a way to tell dropbox to sync these first, maybe by putting them into a special "sync first"folder?

thanks

Find more posts tagged with

Sync

Closed - Partially Delivered

Accepted answers

Mark

Dropbox uploads in size order - from smallest to largest. This is also across all directories within your Dropbox folder structure. So while it would be possible to make it upload in that order it would be quite difficult and time consuming to do so

Chris_J

Maybe it's indexing instead of syncing ?? I wouldn't quit then back up again as it seems to be needing to do this again. Is this the first time syncing these files? if so, I feel for you. You will have to let it do its job. It will get faster as the smaller files are taking time to sync. We all users find that the initial sync is painful. Buts the beauty of Dropbox is the simplest way to sync in normal traffic. I've used DB for over 5 years both at home and at work and its been a very solid service. I had about 2 initial syncs when I didn't make a backup of files and had to sync 78 GB worth of stuff and it was painful. Just have a little more patience. :-)

Chris_J

Thanks for the update. I was thinking earlier about some experiences that I have. It might be possible that you have permissions issues. Check this article out:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/stuck-syncing

https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/files-update-issues

Mac

Quit Dropbox by clicking on the Dropbox icon from the menu bar, clicking on the gear icon, and selecting Quit Dropbox from the pop-up menu.
Open your Terminal app (located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal).
Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press Return after each one.
- Don't type commands by hand.
- You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press Return.
- Important: We assume that your Dropbox folder is in the default pathway. If you have placed your Dropbox folder in a custom location, replace all ~/Dropbox with the full location of your Dropbox folder in quotation marks. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path /Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox, you need to replace ~/Dropboxfrom the following instructions to "https://www.dropbox.com/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox".

sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox

Windows

Quit Dropbox by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the system tray, clicking the gear icon in the notifications panel, and selecting Exit Dropbox from the menu.
Press the Windows Key + R (at the same time), then type cmd and press Enter to open the command prompt.
Copy and paste the following lines into the command prompt, one at a time, and press Enterafter each one. Please make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. Also, you can only paste them by right-clicking and selecting Paste.
```
icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
icacls "%PROGRAMFILES%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
```
If the location of Dropbox folder is not C:\Users\YourUser\Dropbox path, please modify the first command to point to it. For example, if your Dropbox is in \Dropbox, the command would look as follows:
```
icacls "D:\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T			
```
The other commands should remain unchanged. Please note that, depending on the size of your Dropbox, this operation might take some time to complete, so wait for the C:\ prompt to appear again.
Restart Dropbox by going to the Start menu and selecting Program Files, then Dropbox.

Note: If you don't see a Dropbox option under Program Files, you will need to restart Dropbox by entering %APPDATA%\Dropbox into the Windows Explorer window and double clicking Dropbox.exe

g v.

Hi Chris,

Happy 2018.

sync was done the same evening at 9 pm. Dont know why it got off initially, but hope it was the Sierra installation. The things done are changing the permissions (sudo chmod... set of command lines in terminal), unlinking and relinking the dropbox, having dropbox at default location, and keeping the network open in Systems Prefs > Energy Saver > Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when display is off. It took 6 hours on 800 Mbps up and download speed with everything already being there in dropbox and dropbox having 335 GB to sync or re-link with already downloaded documents. Next time I'll get a ticket right away.

thanks for helping out!

All comments

Chris_J

Sorry, there is no such feature. Dropbox Client determines the order for uploading

g v.

according to what criteria does Dropbox Client choose? can I use its system to make my files so it fits the criteria?

thanks

Mark

g v.

ok that would work, thanks. so by keeping those essential files small, splitting them up if possible, I'd make things better.

Also I just cleared the cache again, I think it's stuck. that one file is less than a MB and I have already unlinked this dropbox and signed back in and it's still not synced 5 hours after that. I had hoped I could force the essential files through even if it needs to chew at some other things. Maybe I should uninstall the app and reinstall? not sure.

I do need the larger things on my computer, it's shared folders, so this new selective sync isn't an option. The whole thing is about 250 GB, a quarter of my dropbox space.

Chris_J

its sounds like you may have internet issues. Here is a Help Center Article that you might find informative: https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/sync-speed-external-factors

g v.

800 MBPS up and 800 down (ookla) from this computer where dropbox is having trouble. No other apps using network (apart from mac calendar to icloud but no complaints there), no downloads running.

Chris_J

That's pretty good speed. In Preferences when you click on your Dropbox icon in system tray and click on the gear icon, under the Bandwidth tab, you can make sure there is no limit.

g v.

ok I put uploads from Limit Automatically to No limit for now

(but can't leave this, icloud gets really offended and wants all my account passwords at once if it doesn't get some bandwidth)

also found that this one file that wouldn't sync [there are several but that's the important one] had a red cross meanwhile and moved it out of the Dropbox folder. That was about 15 mins ago. When clicking on the menu bar icon so the controls open and then hovering over the menu bar icon a bit, it says that it is downloading indexing some 88000 files (getting fewer over time) and uploading this one file with the red cross that should be gone.

Maybe then I'd quit dropbox so it notices the file isn't there any more?

Chris_J

g v.

both, it is indexing and syncing, indexing down to 82 000 from 99 000 and syncing down to 162 000 from about 235 000 ( I know it gets slower above 100 000 files but it used to work fine). No, I've had this dropbox for a long time and also the big shared folders were there and been doing fine. Then yesterday something hung itself up. I did reorganize a few folders yesterday and let it run over night. My laptop dropbox (sitting next to me) is all done, just the office computer is doing this thing.

oh and I upgraded both computers to Sierra yesterday (10.12, not high) (sorry completely forgot). Maybe that's why it needs to index all new. Maybe indexing 250 GB takes two days not one, I had it run over night already. so I'll let it index another night.

But it does look like something is wrong in addition because it is still uploading this one 900 KB file that I moved out of dropbox now a few hours ago. I'll post back if this is still there tomorrow. thanks for now!

g v.

now it's at 130 000 syncing and 60 000 indexing, not much has happened over night. this could mean that the computer fell asleep and stopped syncing. I'll run it on Caffeine. Maybe that's also why sync was so slow yesterday - I wasn't constantly at the computer and it might have stopped as soon as the display went to sleep. (but it worked fine when initially syncing the shared folders over night? not sure I understand. maybe indexing needs it to be awake.)

Chris_J

Thanks for the update. I was thinking earlier about some experiences that I have. It might be possible that you have permissions issues. Check this article out:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/stuck-syncing

https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/files-update-issues

Mac

Quit Dropbox by clicking on the Dropbox icon from the menu bar, clicking on the gear icon, and selecting Quit Dropbox from the pop-up menu.
Open your Terminal app (located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal).
Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, one at a time, and press Return after each one.
- Don't type commands by hand.
- You'll be prompted for your computer user's password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press Return.
- Important: We assume that your Dropbox folder is in the default pathway. If you have placed your Dropbox folder in a custom location, replace all ~/Dropbox with the full location of your Dropbox folder in quotation marks. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path /Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox, you need to replace ~/Dropboxfrom the following instructions to "https://www.dropbox.com/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox".

sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox
sudo chmod -RN ~/.dropbox ~/Dropbox
chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox ~/.dropbox

Windows

Quit Dropbox by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the system tray, clicking the gear icon in the notifications panel, and selecting Exit Dropbox from the menu.
Press the Windows Key + R (at the same time), then type cmd and press Enter to open the command prompt.
Copy and paste the following lines into the command prompt, one at a time, and press Enterafter each one. Please make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. Also, you can only paste them by right-clicking and selecting Paste.
```
icacls "%HOMEPATH%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%APPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T
icacls "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
icacls "%PROGRAMFILES%\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":F /T
```
If the location of Dropbox folder is not C:\Users\YourUser\Dropbox path, please modify the first command to point to it. For example, if your Dropbox is in \Dropbox, the command would look as follows:
```
icacls "D:\Dropbox" /grant "%USERNAME%":(F) /T			
```
The other commands should remain unchanged. Please note that, depending on the size of your Dropbox, this operation might take some time to complete, so wait for the C:\ prompt to appear again.
Restart Dropbox by going to the Start menu and selecting Program Files, then Dropbox.

g v.

okay, thanks - I disabled symantec endpoint protextion Virus and Spyware and Network Threat protection. (I dont surf anywhere weird). No gain in speed. Can enable it later.

I checked for files with incompatible characters - they do exist but I have no control over them and sync has worked well before. There are only macs here, so it's not such an issue.

Even though index was down to 30 000 and sync to 60 000 I did the chmod ... set of terminal commands. (I think I have done that before once and it helped). since it started syncing and indexing anew, I then also unlinked the dropbox and relinked it once more so everything is new.

Now it's syncing 340 000, indexing 230 000, and - weirdly - uploading 3 000 files. I didnt make so many new files. I'm always scared it would upload some older versions to a shared folder when unlinking and relinking which could cause real trouble for everyone else. I can't find a way to tell which files it is working at.

well now let's see what happens over night.

Do you have an idea what has caused this problem? If it was running fine for months before?

no need to answer if you're taking off for a few days.

Chris_J

Have you updated your OS recently? Did you update to High Sierra OS (Mac)? and what version of Desktop client are you using? You can see the version number when you place your cursor slowly over the Dropbox icon in menu bar.

Are you using the latest MacOS release, 10.13.1, (this is a known version to work with High Sierra OS)

For the answer to your questions.. I think when you fixed permissions, it changed the metadata thus the need to send updates. I could be wrong here

You might want to send an email to Dropbox and send a ticket. I would strongly suggest you give them this thread url so they can follow along and get more info. https://www.dropbox.com/support

g v.

okay, thanks - yes I installed Sierra (10.12.6 not high) right around the time it got slow. Not sure if it was slow before. I think I would have noticed if I installed Sierra and then Dropbox didn't work right after. I installed Sierra on the laptop simultaneously and didn't have Dropbox problems there.

Dropbox client is 40.4.46.

sync was 2 hours ago 400 000 now 377 000 files

index was 2 hours ago 230 000 now 180 000 files - that's much faster now.

what could change my permissions?

ok, I'll go home now and let it run over night and when it isn't done tomorrow I will make a ticket. Not sure if it makes sense to make a ticket now while things are still running.

thanks!

g v.

bad luck - imac apparently rebooted somewhen. syncing and indexing is starting from the beginning.

g v.

for this it would really, really be nice if one could uncouple syncing of a few choosable essential things from the large things that hardly change but block everything in case things go wrong. This is a large disadvantage of having a big dropbox, as convenient as it may be if it works.

g v.

Hi Chris,

Happy 2018.

thanks for helping out!

g v.

it happened again, did the chmod... series of terminal commands, let it sync over night, all good.

jedijurist

This is BS. Dropbox needs add this functionality YESTERDAY!

Walter

Hi all (and thanks for the nudge here @jedijurist)!

This has been implemented last year. If you have a Dropbox Plus, Professional, or Business account, you can prioritize a file to sync ahead of others syncing with the Dropbox app on your computer.

You can’t prioritize folders or package files at this time though.

I hope this helps and please let us know how you find the feature if you get a chance to utilize it.